FEATURE : THE MONACO TRIPLE
The McLaren M26 on the street circuit
Lyons let loose on the streets
Michael Lyons
Winning three Historic F1 races in one day on the streets of Monte Carlo is an achievement that is unlikely to be repeated . But that ’ s just what HSCC racer Michael Lyons did in April . He told Paul Lawrence about a remarkable weekend .
Michael ( now 30-years-old ) needs little introduction as a regular winner in various single-seaters , notably Formula 5000s , and he ’ s been racing with the Club since he was a teenager . The Monaco Historic has become a key date on his calendar and this spring he tackled three different races in period F1 cars from the family stable , all run by the small family team with the unwavering support of his parents Frank and Judy .
Was it one of those weekends that just went completely to plan ? “ No , they never do – it ’ s historic racing , isn ’ t it ? But Friday was pretty good . Well , obviously in qualifying for the first race in the Surtees TS9 I was surprised to be ahead of Stuart Hall . His McLaren M19 is a good car and Stuart is a pretty good pilot .
“ In the McLaren M26 I was a tenth off Marco Werner on the Friday and it just felt a little bit scrappy . And then in the Hesketh 308E we actually had a wheel failure which was quite exciting . The centre failed at Casino Square but I got it stopped and didn ’ t really have too much drama .
“ That ’ s the cool thing about qualifying around Monaco and when you ’ re trying to risk it and go for that last couple of tenths . You realise you can break a bit later here and there but it ’ s not like you can jump five metres later . It ’ s half a metre or a metre at a time . That ’ s why Historic F1 cars are so special .
“ Saturday was the kind of day I didn ’ t really expect to be honest . Considering how few cars were there I could not have predicted the amount of traffic .
Leading the first lap in the Hesketh
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